Willsy's 309 GTi - Latest update 04/09/2018

[willsy]

Evening all. Right well more progress today, I have literally spent from 9 til 5 on the car and I am knackered. Progress based on the pictures looks pretty slim but again bare in mind the bits I have done have involved stripping down to every last individual piece, to clean up, free up (wiper spindles were seized solid they've taken some work to rectify). It took me 2 hours alone to clean up one of the rear window seals to give an idea.

I started off with the scuttle area, see previous post for 'before' pictures. Here's with parts removed and the trough cleaned. Unfortunately there is some unsightly surface rust that needs attention, but rest assured I've thoroughly checked that that is all that it is so when I get chance to pop and get a wire attachment for the drill I'll clean it back, and treat it. I won't actually be spraying it until warmer weather arrives.





Temporarily refitted wiper assembly and vacuum tank for the sunroof





Then moved onto the passenger rear window. Removed it to find this





And after





The seal was so caked in muck that I left it to soak in hot water with a high concentration of fairy liquid and degreaser, it works wonders and makes the rubber nice & supple again especially with the hardened dry muck removed. Once dry I coated it in a selection of autoglym rubber care products.

I ended with a quickie job of removing the old fog/driving lamps. It's just as well that I have 2 new pairs as the backing pieces were entirely unuseable



I did strip them down though to salvage spares, in particular the glass as none of them are smashed or have cracks so they might be ideal spares for someone with these lights getting harder to come by and increasingly more expensive.

And that's as far as 8 hours pretty much none stop got me

[Dan-Subtlem]

Loving the progress on this, you have some serious patience.

Have you set a deadline for getting it finished or just as long as it takes?

What's the plan for when its finished? Concourse shows or just enjoy driving it around.

[vtectransplant]

I wish you'd stop with all these immense updates it's making me embarrassed about my lack of effort lol!

Only joking, keep it up its so good to see!

[Alanaponep]

Lea might have them for his??

Awesome work so far dude. Keep it going.

[willsy]

Cheers guys, slow and steady but definitely in the right direction so far :-)

Originally Posted by Dan-Subtle

Have you set a deadline for getting it finished or just as long as it takes?

What's the plan for when its finished? Concourse shows or just enjoy driving it around.

No deadline as such Dan, this year I won't have such funds available to put into the paintwork as ideally it'll need a respray, with cars this old and with my eagle eye I could never settle with just doing the odd panels and never getting a decent colour match. So that's a job I'll save for to do properly. So perhaps next summer for that.

This year though I'd like to get it running and make sure everything works as it should. Parts such as trim are becoming quite hard to come by with some new genuine ones commanding a premium already. So this year will be spent getting all the trim and bits on the car mint, and sourcing mint ones for bits which I'm not 100% happy with.

Above all with this one I do aim to use it at least once a week and more in the summer to enjoy it. Something which I havnt done with the last projects, AX was too low mileage to put regular miles on at 25,000. At 89,000 currently on the 309 extra mileage won't really effect the value but I will aim for a standard that I'd at least be happy to call mint. I can happily put in Concours hours into the car but not the Concours money to match it

[willsy]

Slight modification here to improve on the rear window piece being riveted to the B pillar. I have instead installed rivet nuts



For easy fitting and dismantling for regular cleaning with M4 button head bolts



And voila

[Akay]

Great attention to detail, love the rear window mechs on these.

[willsy]

Just a quick update as I havnt spent any time on the car over the last week due to 12 hour shifts.
However I have increased my stock of A4 marine grade stainless bits and bobs with the nuts and bolts being the A4-80 high tensile ones. This'll make things much easier to work on on the car :-)



And I've managed to find someone selling an original Clarion radio/cassette from the same year. It works, has all the wiring in tact and it's got the original key code and user manual. Very happy with that



I will have a more meaningful update soon.

[Luxie75]

Loving that tape player!!

[willsy]

A little more progress today. Thought I'd carry on with the front end a bit and get a few bits refitted to tidy up the garage a bit.

I've made a start on restoring the front bumper to how it should be. This is how it started as faded, a little moss stained in places and plenty of muck to remove.



A few hours later, I won't bore you all with the process I've used unless anyone's particularly interested, and this is the passenger side done



Also the headlamps, front indicators, driving lamps and the fog lights are all brand new genuine ones.

Whilst the fogs & driving lamps were out I've fitted new chimney nuts



And sorted out the knackered old connections which are mostly corroded



With new genuine ones. Never one for settling for cheap alternative spade connections which had been used previously on the outer lamp



All in all quite pleased with the results so far

[Gashman]

I'm amazed how clean you get things! What are the main products you use?

Your attention to detail is top class, great work

[willsy]

My collection of products is almost all Auto Glym based, I keep hearing of better products but I've always been satisfied with the results from AG & they're very reasonably priced.

To get the bumper back how it should be I did start by using a toothbrush and AutoSmart Tardis to clean all the muck, tar, green moss stains off so it was perfectly clean.
I've then used a heat gun to go over it which brings the pigment back up to its original colour, it's the first time I've tried it and it was very quick & easy. This should only need to be done once as I'll keep it regularly treated with AG products & it won't be left neglected in the sun now.
Whilst still hot AG vinyl & rubber care was then liberally applied and worked in, apparently the moisture & product is absorbed better into the plastic. Once cooled I've applied another coat.
Finally I've gone over it with AG bumper gel and worked that in quite well.
It took me all morning just to do that one half of the bumper, definitely well worth it though :-)

[LEE_VTR1]

Looks absolute epic tbh mate. Such a transformation

[willsy]

Cheers lee, bet you can't wait for us to get your interior spankingly clean this week too :-)

Love this for a comparison pic following some tlc

[matt_vtr_15a]

That car really could not be in better hands, credit to you for the effort and time you're investing in it!

[Brettles1986]

Love seeing threads like this. No cutting corners and improvements being made for ease of use rather than styling.

Great job.

[Alanaponep]

Really good work on that plastic!

I might have to try applying some heat to the missus rear bumper as that has a few pale areas and see if that works better than daubing it in back to black lol.

[LSOfreak]

did you remove the old tired number plate when doing the bumper?

a fresh pair of plates does so much

[willsy]

Cheers for the kind comments :-)

Number plate will of course be replaced at some point, one of the last things before it's eventual return to an MOT centre

[willsy]

Brief pause in 309 progress- my new garage flooring has arrived so I'll assemble that tomorrow morning. Taster pic as follows